One of our teams this year for FLL (First Lego League) Robotics, the RoboPirates, advanced in competition and attended the Silicon Valley championship event in Morgan Hill on January 26th. The team consists of Max R. (7th), Colin M. (also in 7th), and Chase L. (5th). Alex D. (5th) was not able to attend, but played a key role in helping the team advance and prepare. The RoboPirates represented the school well in "Gracious Professionalism", the theme of the league. They competed in three areas: The mission (to program robots to compete missions on a game board), a project (the team created an innovative earthquake-proof conduit), and a robot judging, where the design of the team's competing robot is evaluated. Out of 48 area teams, the RoboPirates placed comfortably in the middle of the pack, despite having only 3 months to prepare, once per week - while many schools practice daily. They brought home certificates, medals, a trophy for project design during qualifying event, and memories of a great team experience. These engineers and programmers also brought home some great ideas for next year, which focuses on the "Future of Learning." We're already planning for next year's competition - Robotics continues to meet every Thursday for both afterschool periods. Grade 4-8 students are now learning to use and program sensors in their designs, and our school plans to send multiple teams to future competitions. Stay tuned - and go RoboPirates!